Climate chaos draws closer as G8 leaders fail to act: Greenpeace

Hopes of significant progress at the Major Economies Forum were torpedoed by the lack of leadership shown by the G8 Heads of State yesterday. The onus to take the first critical and decisive step on making progress on climate action was clearly on the leaders of the world’s most affluent developed countries: they failed to take that leadership.

“Once again, Stephen Harper and the other G8 leaders have missed the target on climate change, said Dave Martin, climate and energy coordinator for Greenpeace Canada. “To end a stalemate in international climate negotiations, the G8 needed to commit to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and to providing serious financing for climate action in the developing countries. They did neither.”

“Stephen Harper has again paid lip-service to climate change, but we need to see leadership by example, and so far, the Harper government has been missing in action. The Harper government’s target for greenhouse gas reduction is only three per cent below 1990 levels by 2020,” said Martin.

“Progress at the MEF was always about building trust between the developed and developing world, that climate action was going to a shared responsibility and proportionate. When the leaders of the world’s most powerful developed economies failed to adopt tough mid term emission reduction targets and to put money on the table for adaptation and mitigation in the developing world, they torpedoed any chance a good outcome at the MEF,” said Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA Executive Director.

“When they try to blame China and India for the failure their excuse will be hollow. The failure is one of leadership from the G8.”

“It is hard to believe that any of the G8 Heads of State had the audacity to look the leaders from the developing world at the MEF in the eyes and talk about joint action to protect the climate, most especially President Obama who chaired the meeting,” said Radford.

The G5 -- China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa -- yesterday called for developed countries to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2020. This highlights – as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed yesterday – that the major obstacle to progress is the fact that the G8 and the rest of the developed world need to adopt strong mid-term targets in order to repair the trust deficit built up by their inaction over the last decade.

Without a commitment from the G8 to invest US$106 billion (€74 billion) of the US$140 billion needed annually to enable developing countries to tackle climate change and fund forest protection, the chasm between the developed and developing world will grow.

It is up to the G8 leaders to take the first step. They are the most responsible for climate change.  They are responsible for over 47 per cent of C02 emissions; the developing countries within MEF about 25 per cent. It is the G8 that has shown the least willingness to commit to action.

Update from the activities around Italy

Marghera, Venice: the climbers, including Dexter Perera of Montreal, are off the cranes, but Canadian Earl Beadle from Toronto and others remain on the conveyor belts of the plant, where they have painted G8: LEAD OR LOSE.  Activists on three inflatables then painted the words G8: DON’T DROWN VENICE on the side of the coal ship they had been blockading – the Bulk Brasil, which has been trying to unload coal from South Africa.

Civitavecchia, just outside Rome: five Greenpeace activists painted “G8: STOP THIS” on the 1980 MW power station, the first new power station to be built in Italy in 20 years. It is claimed to be a “clean-coal” power station, however clean coal is a dirty lie and the station emits just as much C02 as any other power station of the same size.

At Vado Ligure (near Genoa) the 11 climbers who had been on the two chimney stacks since the early hours of Wednesday morning have now come down off the stack.  They were greeted by local people who hosted a party in a nearby park for them.  There has been strong opposition to the coal plant in this area.

Porto Tolle – Eight climbers remain on the chimney, where they have painted C02 KILLS

Brindisi:  the occupation of the plant continues.

Read Greenpeace’s letter to the senior Canadian bureaucrats for the G8climate negotiations

For further information, including the G8 climate action check list, staying below 2°C, financing climate action in developing countries and G8 job creation:

http://www.greenpeace.org/g8